Adversity (Cursed #2.5)

by Claire Farrell

  Kali shook her head, her mouth trembling so much she couldn’t speak.

  “I do,” Drina said. “I’ve loved you. Make sure my babies are taken care of.”

  “Don’t leave me,” Kali whispered in her ear, holding Drina’s hand.

  A tear rolled down Drina’s cheek, and her body jerked upward suddenly. She squeezed Kali’s hand until the spasm ended, but the cloths were soaked with fresh blood, and Kali knew there wasn’t much time. Drina’s eyes fluttered lazily as she lost herself in the pain.

  “Fight it,” Kali urged. “Don’t sleep. Stay with me. Please, don’t leave me.” A sob caught in her throat, and she shook her head firmly. She wouldn’t be weak now. Drina needed her to be strong. Gulping hard, she leaned her forehead against Drina’s shoulder. “It doesn’t have to be this way. I can try…”

  “No.” Drina’s voice had weakened, but her intent stayed true. “You won’t. Not you. Listen to me. Listen. Find a way to be happy. Don’t let your heart die as his did. Be strong for me.”

  The night passed too quickly. The spasms of pains increased, and the blood loss wouldn’t ease. The life sapped from Drina’s body. Kali felt her world cracking apart as her sister’s heartbeat slowed. She felt Drina’s pain reach inside her, grip her heart and pull it out, as Drina took her last breath.

  “I’m cutting her. The baby’s almost out.” The midwife’s voice brought Kali back into the world. The baby. A light in the darkness. She stared stolidly at her sister’s body as the midwife cut her way to the baby.

  A tiny body slipped out into her bloody hands. A boy. Blue. Lifeless. Too small.

  Drina was dead for nothing.

  Kali stayed with her sister’s body for hours, guarding it until she was carried away screaming. Her father made her swallow a draught that would calm her down, but she didn’t sleep. She could lose anything but Drina. Her sister was the only one keeping her feet on the ground. She couldn’t bear the loss or the fact she would never hear her sister’s laugh again. Jaelle, her niece, would be taken from her. The child belonged to her father’s family, though Drina’s death made them impure for a time. Kali was still clean because Drina had left her family the day she married. The camp women were all so accepting of Drina’s death, and they didn’t understand how she felt. Drina’s death was the end of everything good and decent in her life. Nothing could keep her on the right path anymore.

  At least her father seemed to give her time to mourn. Embarrassed by her public displays of grief, Besnik sent word that he didn’t want a sobbing new bride and gave her one month to say goodbye. One month to cauterise the pain, as though that would ever be enough.

  Her father forbade her from seeing the body because he didn’t care for her sobbing, either, and he didn’t want to give Besnik the chance to change his mind. If he had shown even the slightest regret that Drina was dead, then Kali might have forgiven her father for everything. If he’d acknowledged with the slightest sign any sorrow that he’d outlived his daughter, Kali might have warmed to him, and calmed the beast in her head that told her to run.

  But the bitterness inside her twisted and churned until she realised she would never sleep. She slipped away, running as soon as she gained a healthy distance from the camp. She knew where Andriy lived, or at least knew the general direction of his farm, and she knew she would have to go to him or never find peace and comfort again.

  Still covered in her sister’s blood, she ran before dawn broke across the sky, ignoring everything around her except the beating of her heart, which was the only thing that kept her going. She recalled the second Drina’s heart stopped and how her sister’s body felt so empty, merely a shell because Drina’s soul was long gone.

  Kali found the farm. Her legs ached from the run. What was she doing? She had nobody else, and if she didn’t tell someone, then she would go completely insane.

  She climbed a gate and immediately set off a dog barking. One ran from behind the house, paws slipping in its haste, and the barking increasing as it spied her. The black beast ran straight to her, and she froze in horror. A low whistle halted the animal, and it skidded in the dirt, slammed right into her legs, and knocked her over. She couldn’t get up. Tears streaming, she sat there and wept until Andriy reached her, his face full of concern.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked urgently, pulling her to her feet.

  She shook her head. “My sister. The baby. They died. She died in my arms, and the baby was already gone. It was for nothing, Andriy. She died for nothing. And that’s what’s going to happen to me.”

  He pulled her into his arms, and she savoured the feel of his chest, the way his arms made her feel protected. She clung to his shirt and inhaled his scent. She was desperate to preserve that one memory.

  “It won’t happen to you,” he said.

  She pushed him away, fresh tears falling. “It will. All they want is for me to bear child after child before it’s too late for me to bear any more. My mother died in childbirth, and now Drina’s gone, too. This is what happens to us.”

  She brushed tears from her cheeks, watching the pity in his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but a voice called for him from the house. Marusya.

  “Run,” he urged, and she did. As much as she wanted him for herself, she couldn’t find it in herself to bring any more trouble his way. She heard Marusya’s yells as she ran, and she knew the woman had seen her. She didn’t regret coming to Andriy, though, because she had felt something for a couple of seconds in Andriy’s arms. Protection, concern… and love.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Amelia

  I woke up crying. My sister was dead. After a couple of moments I remembered I didn’t have a sister, yet the pain remained because now I knew what it would feel like to lose Perdita. The curse would kill her. I would mourn her, too. I couldn’t feel that pain or loss again. I wouldn’t be able to take it.

  Why was I suffering someone else’s pain in my dreams? The dreams had an urgency—Kali’s time was running out. Some event, really significant, felt near. My time was running out, too. Each day, the other werewolves had another chance to come after us, and I couldn’t even defend myself.

  That morning, the headaches were worse than usual. My entire body felt as though it were submerged in water and weighted down by rocks. I moved slowly, didn’t eat for fear of vomiting, and swallowed painkillers that did nothing to ease the pain. I couldn’t go anywhere with Connor. I didn’t want to see anyone. I locked myself in my room for most of the day, only surfacing for water or more painkillers.

  Nobody noticed.

  When Connor texted me, I explained I was feeling sick, and that I would see him the following week, but I didn’t know if I was going to last that long. Something was happening to me.

  I nodded off a couple of times, but Kali’s world was dark and quiet. She sat alone, not crying, only thinking of her sister. I was glad to wake up. All I wanted was to push those awful memories away.

  Later, Nathan brought me food, and I pretended to nibble at it as he told me the news; the werewolves were on their way. They were coming for us.

  Time had run out.

  ***

  Kali

  Her father sent her back to the village two days after Drina’s death. Her mood had infected the camp, he told her. Now was the time to show them what she was made of.

  She didn’t go to the village. She found the spot where Andriy waited for her and stayed there most of the day. She had some water and a little food, but her appetite had left. She waited, wondering what she would do if he didn’t come. She might turn into stone and become part of the earth.

  Two men approached her in the evening, around the time she would normally be walking home. Deep in her heart, she knew they carried ill-will toward her. Even before they called to her, she knew. Even before one tried to grab hold of her. She dodged his grasp and ran, hoping they weren’t as fast as she, but her skirts weighed her down. And the men were determined.

  One caught up, and grip
ped her arms tightly as he tried to carry her across the fields. She launched her knee at his groin, and he let go in surprise. Though she ran again, another was waiting, and clamped his hand against her mouth. She bit hard, and with a yell, he let go and pulled her arms behind her back. She tried to kick, but the first man had recovered. He grabbed her legs and helped carry her off.

  She squirmed and wriggled, yelled and screamed, and the men seemed to change their minds, because they threw her down into a ditch where she landed in deep muck.

  They disappeared from view, but she heard shouting and realised Andriy had come. Andriy had found her. But what if they hurt him? Long minutes later, Andriy gazed into the ditch and raised his eyebrows.

  “Do you need help?” he asked.

  She held her hand in the air in response. He climbed down the sodden embankment, trying to avoid the softer parts, but as he gripped her hand and pulled, she slipped back heavily, pulling him on top of her. With his entire weight on her body, his mouth barely an inch from hers, and his gaze unwavering, she felt excitement and hope. A reason to fight.

  Feeling a burst of bravery, she raised her hand to his face and traced a muddy streak across his cheek. He didn’t move, save for the trembling, and she kissed him for long seconds. His lips responded to hers; his arms held her tight, and she felt as though a dream had come true.

  The moment ended too quickly. He pulled back, sadness in his eyes, and he apologised.

  “Don’t say you are sorry,” she whispered, “for I am not.”

  His breath seemed to catch in his throat, but he lifted off her and helped her up the embankment, to the grass.

  “I can’t go back like this.” She gestured to the muck caked on her clothes and skin.

  “The lake,” he said in reply, his voice more quiet than usual.

  Don’t regret it, she silently pleaded.

  At the lake, they both washed the mud and grime from their skin, and Kali cleaned her skirts and even her hair as best she could. She felt his eyes on her, and she turned to catch his gaze. There was heat in his glance, and it thrilled every cell in her body. She inched closer to him, and he didn’t move away.

  He took her hand and walked to the shore where she crawled onto his lap for another kiss. He didn’t refuse her. This time their kiss was rougher. Full of goodbyes. He pushed her gently onto the grass, straddled her body, and lifted her skirts. She knew she would never regret his touch.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Amelia

  “Holy…”

  I jolted upward, my heart pounding in the dark. For once I knew where I was, who I was, and that what I had experienced was a dream, though I couldn’t believe all I’d seen was a figment of my own subconscious imagination. I couldn’t accept that Andriy and Kali had never existed. I also couldn’t believe they’d been brave enough to make that one irrevocable mistake. A mistake that could change everything.

  Part of me applauded them for seeking out happiness, while another part of me wanted to slap them for being so stupid. They would be discovered—everything had consequences. The curse was teaching me that. However, I’d always encouraged Nathan to follow his heart, and now I was planning on taking his soul mate away from him as soon as I figured out how.

  It was the middle of the night, and I felt a little hungry. I stumbled downstairs and picked at leftovers in the fridge.

  “Amelia?”

  I jumped at the sound of Opa’s voice.

  “Yeah, sorry. I was hungry.”

  “Good. You need to eat, little one.”

  Tears came to my eyes at the gentleness of my grandfather’s tone, and I felt as though I hadn’t heard his voice in a year. I turned to gaze at him in wonder, and he shrugged.

  “You were right. All along, you were right. I let my own pain break up the family. But it will get better. I promise you.”

  I shook my head and took a deep breath to control the shaking in my voice. “Don’t make promises. Right now, they don’t mean much. Show us it’ll be better. Show us everything can go back to normal.”

  When he bowed his head, I knew he couldn’t take things back to the way they were. “We’ll never have the same lives again,” he said. “I can’t change what’s happened; I can’t change how I feel. I need Vin to suffer after what he did to your grandmother. I need to feel as though I’ve done something for her and that I haven’t forgotten her. I don’t want to live in a world in which she doesn’t exist, but I won’t leave it until I’ve repaid a debt of pain. The wolf will never rest as long as he lives. Please understand how it has to be.”

  “If you wanted to prove your love, then you’d honour her memory, Opa. She would hate this, and you know it. She would hate to see us like this, gunning for blood, unable to find peace until we grabbed ourselves a dose of revenge. This isn’t the way we’re supposed to be.”

  “It’s the way I have to be,” he said, his eyes sad. “I need to do what I should have done all those years ago. I would have saved us a lifetime of pain.”

  He left the room soundlessly, and I slammed the fridge door, my stomach turning. It was one thing to defend ourselves, but looking for blood was quite another. I needed to get through to him before he led the entire family straight into a violent war.

  I went back to bed, but this time I dreaded what visions sleep would bring me.

  ***

  Kali

  In the days counting down to her wedding, Kali realised she was carrying Andriy’s child. She had known when they’d made love that the time was right for her to conceive, but she was so interested in comfort and any act that would take her pain away—even momentarily—that she’d purposefully disregarded the possible consequences. She hadn’t cared what would happen next. She had lived for the moment, and now the future was planning on making her pay for it.

  The baby could be her way out, but the truth was dangerous. No man would marry her if he knew she was already pregnant at the time of the wedding, by another man. Her father would lose out on the riches he hoped to gain from her. Her people would punish, shun, and reject her everywhere she turned. She could be called before the Kris, suffer her gypsy blood to be taken from her, and lose her magic, perhaps even her child. But she could avoid all of that. All she had to do was run.

  She hadn’t seen Andriy since the day he loved her. She hadn’t gone back to the village. Her father had beaten her, but some of the camp women intervened, saying it wasn’t right to make her return so soon to fortune-telling. The women wanted her to reconcile Drina’s death with her physical body, lest Drina’s spirit returned, unable to rest in peace. Kali would have preferred the beating, for that kind of pain was preferable. At least her father’s beatings had kept her thoughts away from her broken heart.

  She made her decision that night and crept away in the dead of night. She had found Andriy before, so she would go to him again to say goodbye, at the very least.

  If her father or Besnik found her out, they would harm Andriy for taking something of theirs, and she hesitated.

  Andriy made her decision for her. He came for her on the eve of her wedding. She saw him in the distance, beyond her people’s campgrounds, and she knew it was him, for she recognised in him everything that marked him as hers.

  She didn’t hesitate to run to him, pulling him behind a copse of trees so they wouldn’t be seen.

  “What are you doing here?”

  His chin shook. “I heard your wedding was tomorrow. My wife found out and rubbed it in my face. She boasted she had sent men to rape you and make you unclean, in the hopes your people would kill you before the wedding. She has a black heart. The way she spoke… I can’t live with her hate.”

  “I’m running away,” she told him, anguished by the pain in his eyes.

  “Why?”

  She took his hand and pressed it against her stomach, gazing at him meaningfully. He stared at her, awe in his expression.

  “Truly?”

  She nodded, a giggle of excitement escaping her lips. She
never thought the idea of a child would please her, but Andriy’s child was something else. The thought of them, combining to make one perfect being, made her heart soar with happiness.

  “We could run together,” he said. “We could change our names. Marry. Live free lives. I can’t get your touch out of my mind, Kali. Everything else has tasted like ash since I tasted you. I could never be happy without you.”

  She kissed his lips. “We’re meant to be. We’re soul mates, Andriy. I’ll run anywhere with you.”

  They left in the dark, taking nothing except the wolfhound called Dog. They made sure to avoid any villages close to gypsy camps. Andriy helped them survive by working odd jobs in the villages in which they stopped, and she did the usual palm reading and fortune-telling while her belly swelled.

  Each kick from the baby inside her filled her with awe. She thought she might love the baby even more than she idolised his father. She knew it was a boy; she could sense him clearly. Part of her wished it was Drina’s son reincarnated.

  The shadows grew ever closer and never let her forget her heritage. The shadows were brought upon her by her father’s black magic. She wouldn’t allow them to have her child. Never would she allow that.

  A thunderstorm tore the sky apart on the night she went into labour. She and Andriy, accompanied only by Dog, huddled together in the small room they rented. She still didn’t know what possessed her to take the animal, but he had served them well so far.

  She dreamt through the pain. Nightmarish visions of her sister covered in blood, her hands reaching for Kali, begging with her dead eyes. The dreams didn’t bode well for her, and for the first time, she wondered if her baby would die, too. Perhaps that would be her punishment for her sins.